GUARDS officers played cricket within gunshot of the ­battlefield of Waterloo - just like their forebears 200 years ago.

On the bicentenary of Wellington's greatest victory they faced MCC using 1815 club-style bats.

The young officers, including Lieutenant Henry Larkin, 27, of the Irish Guards, recreated a match played six days before the battle in front of keen cricketer the Duke of Wellington.

And the game was played by 1815 rules - underarm bowling, no boundaries and four balls per over.

The match at the Royal Brussels Cricket Club was the latest in a series of re-enactments to mark a battle which ended the Napoleonic Wars and helped make Britain a 19th century superpower.

The event was the brainchild of RBCC chairman Nick Compton, 46, who is striving to promote cricket across Belgium.

Mr Compton said: "The original game was staged by the Duke of Richmond who at the time was England's finest cricketer.

"He put up the money for ­Thomas Lord to buy Lord's and the MCC's egg and bacon colours were his racing colours."

Lieutenant Larkin, who has served in Cyprus and Bosnia, said: "The Guards fought in the battle of Waterloo and it's good to be part of events commemorating the bicentenary."

The re-enactments will climax on Friday with 5,000 enthusiasts staging the battle in period costume on the battlefield about 15 miles south of Brussels.

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British battle line

The original game was staged by the Duke of Richmond who at the time was England's finest cricketer. He put up the money for ­Thomas Lord to buy Lord's and the MCC's egg and bacon colours were his racing colours.

Nick Compton, RBCC chairman

Today re-enactors from across Europe were going through their drills to the sound of harshly barked orders and bugles.

The Daily Express introduced Ukip leader Nigel Farage to "Napoleon".

Played by Paris lawyer Frank ­Samson, 47, and wearing a bottle green jacket and a black felt bicorne hat, he gamely presented Mr Farage with a copy of a medal struck to commemorate his conquest of the Netherlands.

Mr Farage, a military history buff, grinned: "I'll keep this with pleasure but if I wear it at the Ukip conference they'll lynch me."